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Report: Ex-Marine From Mich. Gets 10-Year Sentence In Iran

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TEHRAN, Iran (WWJ/AP) - An Iranian news agency is reporting that an appeals court has overturned a death sentence of a Michigan man convicted of working for the CIA, instead sentencing him to 10 years in prison.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported Saturday that lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei says a Revolutionary Court issued the verdict for former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati. Tabatabaei described the verdict as final.

The Associated Press could not reach Tabatabaei on Saturday.

Iran charged Hekmati with receiving special training and serving at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for his alleged mission.

The 31-year-old Hekmati is a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen born in Arizona. Family members in the Flint area say Hekmati traveled to Iran to visit his grandmothers when he was arrested in 2011. Tehran accused him of being a CIA spy, then tried, convicted and sentenced him to death.